5 unconventional political books

For political junkies looking for some new books that aren’t as weighty as, say, a new Robert Caro biography, the dock of new releases features some quirky and unusual takes on fictional political life.

Here are five with an unconventional approach to politics: — Patrick Gavin

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1. “Taft 2012: A Novel” by Jason Heller

Be honest, we’ve all wondered: What Would William Howard Taft do? OK, maybe not. But A.V. Club contributor Jason Heller has considered it for his debut novel. The premise? Taft emerges from a deep sleep just in time for the upcoming presidential election — “untouched by age and hungry as ever” — and decides to give the ol’ presidency another go.

“It’s the ultimate what-if scenario for the 2012 election season!” boasts the book’s publisher. “He is the perfect presidential candidate. Conservatives love his hard-hitting Republican résumé. Liberals love his passion for peaceful diplomacy. The media can’t get enough of his larger-than-life personality. Regular folks can identify with his larger-than-life physique. And all the American people love that he’s an honest, hardworking man who tells it like it is.”

Could be a big hit among the Anybody but Romney Republican crowd. For a sample, here’s one campaign agenda item from the famously rotund Taft: “To aggressively address one of the most urgent yet most ignored problems that plague our nation: food. In the richest country in the world, it’s tantamount to a human-rights atrocity that industry and government conspire to keep the American people pumped full of garbage — and increasingly dependent on a broken health care system. Guiding America toward healthier eating habits and access to better food isn’t a case of executive heavy-handedness; it’s a way of protecting its citizenry against those veritable domestic terrorists who parasitically profit from the degraded health and well-being of their neighbors.”

2. “Falling Together” by Randolph Anderson

Also a debut, “Falling Together” is author Frederick Anderson’s (he wrote the book under the nom de plume Randolph Anderson) imagination of the 2012 Republican primaries.

“At a family party on Christmas Eve, divided loyalties erupt over wealthy conservative Senator ‘Uncle’ Ralph Mason’s presidential campaign,” reads the book’s Amazon.com blurb. “Events quickly give way to dubious fund-raising, an ad blitz, a fateful TV interview and press conference, invasion of personal corporate files, a funny Senate hearing about kidneys, planting ‘Gotchas,’ ancestry, race and mistaken parentage. Three very unlike family members are forced to dig down to the roots of America’s collapsing public life and faltering global supremacy. Their astounding makeovers change them and could change the nation.”

Anderson knows a thing or two about how Washington works: Currently a senior strategic adviser at the K Street law firm McKenna Long & Aldridge (and formerly the dean of American University’s law school), Anderson has spent his time in Washington litigating primarily on environmental and energy issues. But the best sign of Washington insider-dom? Gary Hart blurbs the book on the back: “A thoughtful treatment of both the current political stalemate and the structural stresses of our system.”